Stick to Your Roots: Pavel Polanco-Safadit
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Release Date: 10/21/2020
Home Is Not a Safe Place: Irene Maun
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Irene Maun is originally from the Marshall Islands, a Pacific island nation struggling with the legacy of U.S. nuclear testing and facing the devastation of climate change. She now lives in Dubuque, Iowa, where she is nurturing the health and resilience of a growing Midwest Marshallese community.
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Journey into the New: Dominique Serrand
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Dominique Serrand was born and raised in Paris. While studying at the Jacques Lecoq School for international theatre, Dominique forged a special bond with classmates from Minneapolis, Minnesota. Together they founded Theatre de la Jeune Lune, or Theatre of the Young Moon. The young drama company moved to Minneapolis in 1981 and closed in 2008. Later that year, Dominique and a few of his partners from Jeune Lune formed The Moving Company, which continues to produce new work in the Twin Cities.
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Conversations with America: Abdirizak Abdi
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
At age six, Abdirizak Abdi fled civil war in his native Somalia. He lived in a refugee camp in neighboring Kenya, then in the capital city of Nairobi, and as a teenager moved to the United States. Today, he is the principal of Humboldt High School in St. Paul Minnesota, one of the first Somali-American school leaders in the country.
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I Reached for Books: Hem Rizal
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Hem Rizal was born in Bhutan and migrated to Nepal with his family when he was just a year old. He grew up in the Gold Hap Refugee Camp in Nepal and later settled with his family in Seattle. Hem is a graduate of the University of Washington and taught briefly in the Des Moines Public Schools with AmeriCorps before joining the Teach for America program for four years on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. He is presently an M.A. candidate in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School.
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Always in the Gray Areas: John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
All his life, Guatemalan-American John-Paul Chaisson-Cardenas has lived in the gray areas between worlds. This has made him skillful at building bridges between white Midwesterners and immigrants in the Heartland, a calling that has been both risky and rewarding.
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America Looks Like Scotland!: Zoe Bouras
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Zoe Bouras is a Communications and Development AmeriCorps VISTA with the Immigration Project in Bloomington, Illinois. She emigrated with her mother from northern England to rural Illinois when she was eight years old, and has called Arthur, Illinois, home since then. Zoe began her path to American citizenship just last year. She hopes to be naturalized in 2021.
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Stick to Your Roots: Pavel Polanco-Safadit
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
As a kid in the Dominican Republic, Pavel Polanco-Safadit pounded away for hours perfecting his technique as a classical pianist. This passion led him to the U.S., and eventually to the Midwest, where he has rediscovered his Latin Jazz roots and the Indiana roots of American Jazz.
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America Has Its Own Ghosts: Kao Kalia Yang
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Kao Kalia Yang is an author, public speaker, and teacher. She was born in the Ban Vinai Refugee Camp in Thailand and settled with her family in St. Paul, Minnesota, when she was six years old. Kalia has an MFA from Columbia University and has taught in K-12 schools in a variety of communities, as well as at many colleges and universities. For more information about her writing, teaching, and availability for public speaking, visit her homepage: https://kaokaliayang.com/.
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The Gospel of Seed and Soil: Liz Garst
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Liz Garst grew up in Coon Rapids, Iowa, in a family of agricultural pioneers. She shares childhood memories from Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev’s visit to their farm and how the family legacy inspired her own career in international agriculture. After jobs with the Peace Corps and the World Bank, she came home in the 1980s, at the height of the Farm Crisis. Now she helps manage the family land as Whiterock Conservancy, where she promotes outdoor recreation and sustainable agriculture.
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Flip the Sky: Bob Leonard
Mid-Americana: Stories from a Changing Midwest
Bob Leonard is News Director for KNIA/KRLS, where he also hosts the podcast In Depth. He also writes for The New York Times, Salon, and many other national newspapers and magazines. As a professor of anthropology at the University of New Mexico, Bob supervised archeological research with the Navajo and Zuni nations. After the birth of his first child, Bob supplemented his faculty salary by driving a cab in Albuquerque. His experiences as a cab driver inspired his first book, Yellow Cab.
info_outlineAs a kid in the Dominican Republic, Pavel Polanco-Safadit fell in love with piano and spent hours each day perfecting his technique. This passion and skill eventually earned him a college scholarship to study music in the U.S., and he went on to earn a masters and doctorate in music. For years, Pavel taught music at Earlham College in Richmond, Indiana, where he continues to be a leader in the community as Executive Director of the Richmond’s Amigos Latino Center. In this episode, Pavel talks about his experience immigrating to the Midwest, his passion for Latin jazz, and the power of music as a bridge across cultures. He also shares more about Richmond, a small town with a surprisingly large role in the history of recorded jazz.
To hear more of Pavel’s music, visit the Facebook page for his band, Pavel and Direct Contact, which has videos of recent performances and information about upcoming shows. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the band has live-streamed several virtual performances together with Dominican jazz musicians. He maintains a strong relationship with his native country, returning each year to lead the Music Ed Fest, providing musical opportunities to a new generation of young Dominicans.
To learn more about Gennett Records, visit the Starr Gennett Foundation, dedicated to preserving the history of recorded jazz in Richmond, Indiana. For even more detail, check out Rick Kennedy’s book, Jelly Roll, Bix, and Hoagy: Gennett Studios and the Birth of Recorded Jazz or listen to this episode of the Everything Sounds Podcast. Middle Tennessee State University professor Charlie Dahan maintains a soundcloud playlist of Gennett recordings and a Gennett Records website with a bibliography and discography. Listen to him talk more about Indiana jazz history in this episode of the MTSU On the record podcast.